Testing the Vegan Tamales Dough-and using leftover rice!

Previously, I listed tamales as a possible to use root tops in place of spinach. And last year I tested a vegetarian (uses butter) tamale recipe for black eyed peas.  Well, I got around to testing the vegan version this weekend as part of my detox. It was a success and no heavy feeling stomach from dairy!

In general was fearful of making tamales for the longest time until I went to the San Diego Fair a few years ago and watched a cooking demo. I had heard that people would get the whole family together at Christmas time doing an all day assembly line gave me the impression of it being labor intensive. But I think families make tamales for the season and freeze them or give them away. It also seems like a big social event for them.

I tend to make in batches of a dozen or two so I can make them solo and just spend an afternoon doing it. However, I could see myself having a tamale making party with friends and family. Perhaps a birthday gathering idea for 2013! Love that tamales are versatile, like pizzas, sushi, burritos...you can try putting whatever you have on hand, if you don't care about being traditional.

 The recipe I came upon also suggested a sweet filling of pumpkin/squash and rice with cinnamon. I had ingredients for both versions, so why not test them at the same time if I'm already messing up the kitchen (I decided if I could wish for anything for the kitchen, I want a robot that washes hand-wash dishes for me...I don't mind doing cooking, but time spent with soap and water tempts me to eat out). The big  plus of the sweet variation is I found another use for leftover rice besides fried rice or rice pudding (not sure if a vegan version would be successful-can't use egg replacer as it contains soy).

The recipe from Squiddoo.

Supposed to yield 4 dozen, I guess I put a lot of dough on mine or I like to cover the filling up a little more, it looks like my batch is only going to make 20...

For the dough, mix together

• 4 cups masa harina
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the sweet filling mix together

• 1 cup cooked/mashed squash, pumpkin or sweet potato
• 1 cup rice (I used a defrosted batch)
• cinnamon or pumpkin pie spices to taste
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

For savory filling-Root tops OR kidney beans

• radish and turnip greens from about 12 roots)-rinsed well, chopped and steamed or sauteed with garlic (can use garlic powder if no fresh)-cooked down it looked like about 1-1.5 cups.
• garlic minced or garlic powder to taste

• Kidney bean version-soaked 1 cup of dried beans overnight and simmered on medium 35 minutes, then mash slightly
•  Add a salsa or taco sauce for flavor. I did La Victoria Green taco sauce.

Mix all dough ingredients in a medium bowl. Since I used homemade veggie stock, I added 1 tsp of salt instead of 1/4 tsp. The dough should hold it's shape when handled and not be sticky.

 Make the dough into balls-mine end up being about 1.5 times the size of a golf ball...maybe slightly smaller than a racquetball (not sure how many of you play racquetball)

Spread the dough into a square-ish shape in the husk. I used my palm but there is a spreader as I learned on Gourmet Sleuth. There should be about 1.5" above and below the dough to leave room for tying shut. Place 1.5 tbsp of fill in the center of the dough. 

Fold left and right side of the husk together so the dough meets. To shut the husk, you could just twist the top and bottom like the hard candy wrappers (shown on Squidoo's pics).. but.because I have a small steamer, I fold down the top and bottom and then put the corn husk strip tie around it (see picture below, the one on the right side stayed shut).

Steam about 2" of water on medium-low heat for 45 minutes. Check halfway through to make sure there is enough water.